The Philosophy of Jesus » (1)

Amazingly, no one ever seems to have looked at Jesus as a philosopher, or his teaching as philosophy. Yet no one in history has ever had a more radically new philosophy, or made more of a difference to philosophy, than Jesus. He divided all human history into two, into "B.C." and "A.D."; and the history of philosophy is crucial to human history, since philosophy is crucial to man; so how could He not also divide philosophy?

This book (1) looks at Jesus as a complete human being (as well as divine), therefore also as a philosopher; (2) looks at philosophy as Jesus' pre-modern contemporaries did, as a wisdom, a world-view, and a way of life rather than as a super-science (Descartes, Hegel) or as a servant-science (Hobbes, Hume); and (3) looks at philosophy in light of Jesus rather than at Jesus in light of philosophy. This work explores the most radical revolution in the history of philosophy, the differences Jesus made to metaphysics (the philosophy of being), to epistemology (the philosophy of knowing), to anthropology (the philosophy of man), and to philosophical ethics and politics. And, besides, it has the greatest ending of any philosophy book in a century.

About the Author:
Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy at Boston College

Introduction I: Who Is this Book For?     1
Introduction II: How Is Jesus a Philosopher?     3
Introduction III: What Are the Four Great Questions of Philosophy?     6
Jesus' Metaphysics (What is real?)     10
Jesus' Jewish Metaphysics     10
Jesus' New Name for God     19
The Metaphysics of Love     22
The Moral Consequences of Metaphysics     26
Sanctity as the Key to Ontology     29
The Metaphysics of "I AM"     32
Jesus' Epistemology (How do we know what is real?)     47
Jesus' Anthropology (Who are we who know what is real?)     68
Jesus' Ethics (What should we be to be more real?)     93
Christian Personalism: Seeing "Jesus Only"     100
The Overcoming of Legalism     109
The Refutation of Relativism     117
The Secret of Moral Success     121
Jesus and Sex     126
Jesus and Social Ethics: Solidarity     141
Jesus and Politics: Is He Left or Right?     144
Conclusion     150
Index     151